And a former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialized in Russian counterintelligence tells Mother Jones that in recent months he provided the bureau with memos, based on his recent interactions with Russian sources, contending the Russian government has for years tried to co-opt and assist Trumpand that the FBI requested more information from him.

SNIP

In June, the former Western intelligence officerwho spent almost two decades on Russian intelligence matters and who now works with a US firm that gathers information on Russia for corporate clientswas assigned the task of researching Trump's dealings in Russia and elsewhere, according to the former spy and his associates in this American firm. This was for an opposition research project originally financed by a Republican client critical of the celebrity mogul. (Before the former spy was retained, the project's financing switched to a client allied with Democrats.) "It started off as a fairly general inquiry," says the former spook, who asks not to be identified. But when he dug into Trump, he notes, he came across troubling information indicating connections between Trump and the Russian government. According to his sources, he says, "there was an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit."

This was, the former spy remarks, "an extraordinary situation." He regularly consults with US government agencies on Russian matters, and near the start of July on his own initiativewithout the permission of the US company that hired himhe sent a report he had written for that firm to a contact at the FBI, according to the former intelligence officer and his American associates, who asked not to be identified. (He declines to identify the FBI contact.) The former spy says he concluded that the information he had collected on Trump was "sufficiently serious" to share with the FBI.

Mother Jones has reviewed that report and other memos this former spy wrote. The first memo, based on the former intelligence officer's conversations with Russian sources, noted, "Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting TRUMP for at least 5 years. Aim, endorsed by PUTIN, has been to encourage splits and divisions in western alliance." It maintained that Trump "and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals." It claimed that Russian intelligence had "compromised" Trump during his visits to Moscow and could "blackmail him." It also reported that Russian intelligence had compiled a dossier on Hillary Clinton based on "bugged conversations she had on various visits to Russia and intercepted phone calls."

The former intelligence officer says the response from the FBI was "shock and horror." The FBI, after receiving the first memo, did not immediately request additional material, according to the former intelligence officer and his American associates. Yet in August, they say, the FBI asked him for all information in his possession and for him to explain how the material had been gathered and to identify his sources. The former spy forwarded to the bureau several memossome of which referred to members of Trump's inner circle. After that point, he continued to share information with the FBI. "It's quite clear there was or is a pretty substantial inquiry going on," he says.

"This is something of huge significance, way above party politics," the former intelligence officer comments. "I think [Trump's] own party should be aware of this stuff as well."

This article was published by Mother Jones back on October 31, 2016, as recently unearthed by Aaron Klein. The author, David Corn, helped launch Plamegate, as I summarized here (see Question #21: "21. What role did David Corn play in triggering the DOJ probe of Novaks column? Prior to Novaks column, David Corn had met Wilson on the set of FOX News and had invited him to contribute a column to The Nation. According to Corn, after Novaks column came out, he called Wilson and suggested to him that Novaks column may have been a criminal violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. Corn then published an article making the first public accusation that the Bush administration had committed a crime by blowing Plames cover. Three years later, Corn would coauthor the first book identifying the actual leaker as Richard Armitage."). This whole scandal begins to look increasingly like Plamegate/Nigergate, to the point of involving some of the same players.

So MJ lost a court case about a “fake but accurate” rape story where they lost millions. And now they’re stupid enough to try that crap again with the most powerful man in the world who also happens to be very protective of his reputation i.e., litigious. These people who run MJ aren’t exactly geniuses are they? The next question is when does President Trump take ownership of MJ. hahahha

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